I’d love to see “Force Light”, from Tom Veitch’s Tales Of The Jedi comic books seen on screen. Though done in a satisfying way with weight and reason for it. Not some cheap gimmick or throw away ability, like “Force Dash” from TPM!

Maybe in one of the 3 new theatrical films recently announced?
 

I loved the “Force Projection” power in TLJ, it felt natural, that it wasn’t a gimmick or cheat, and it did have that emotional weight I personally like to see when the Force is used.

Shopping Maul said:

Yes. Han’s death could have been the catalyst for Luke’s wailing on Vader (ie Luke sensing Han sacrificing himself during the final battle) - this would eliminate the need for a) Leia being the sister (which was ridiculous) and b) Lucas introducing Jedi ‘mind-reading’ (which was also ridiculous).

I do like that idea Han’s death could have been the catalyst for Luke’s wailing on Vader, definitely sits better with me too as a concept.

Sensing that Han had been lost in the battle could have made Luke’s turn to anger more “in the moment” and given more peril for other Rebels in that space fight.

screams in the void said:

I have had this tape since I bought the boxed set in 92 and I think I enjoyed watching it today almost as much as the day I bought it and watched it on the 50 inch CRT rear projection tv my folks had back then . The tape still plays great after all these years ,only a little tracking issues/static lines right as the credits roll and then it clears up .I also plugged a set of quality stereo headphones into the tv for added enjoyment . Is it just me , or did some of those early LCD TVs have some better vivid colors

You may have to explain what tracking issues are to the younger members on here! 😉

Up until a few years ago some of the architects at my old work place swore by the old CRT screens. They reckoned the CRTs gave far more accurate colours than the flat panels, and a wider range or something like that. I always thought it was because they wanted to keep er the bigger desks, as anyone who had a flat screen had to have a modern sleek (and cheap) looking desk. Maybe there was actually something to those CRTs. They certainly lasted longer than many of the newer flatscreens at our place.

Retro gamers seem to want to play their old systems on CRT TVs when possible, but that could be due to the connectors, and not wanting to pay for expensive adapters?

I wish I still had my old copy.
 

There some threads and projects for the Behind The Magic CD-ROMs in this post here (from the Star Wars Preservations Index):

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/An-Index-Of-Projects-Help-Thread-for-Star-Wars-Preservations/id/57297/page/1#1123114
 

Edit: I posted this before I saw Gary1’s helpful post. Sorry.

Channel72 said:

I wish they kept that line in the film.

I always imagined Jenny got together with Fixer and Camie, and they had their own adventures that were almost but not quite remembered by the Galaxy at large. Some historians claim their adventures were recorded in “The Book of Jenny”, but prevailing consensus now believes these were apocryphal additions to the Journal of the Whills, known only through later accounts falsely attributed to Mace Windy and C.J. Thorpe. Other evidence may suggest these accounts were lost when the Journal of the Whills was recompiled by a later scribe known only as “Marcia L.” as attested in the margin notes.

I’d watch that as a limited run series, it actually seems like it could be fun, or something the Auralnauts should do!

Juno Eclipse said:

snip

That is shit. Passing off the 2004 portrayal and scene footage as being part of Return Of The Jedi’s 40 year history shows how little respect they have. Rewriting history and $$$ all the way.

What also weirds me out in a funny way is that Anakin has kept his Vader stilt legs for this! He is now about a foot taller than Kenobi, despite the 2004 scene the whole thing refers to showing otherwise:

 
Also, has Anakin’s non-robotic hand magically come back? I can’t quite make it out from the images, but it looks like it.

This figure and use of 2004 footage as being “40th anniversary” sucks, of course it does. Though it is not dissimilar to showing the 4 year old Maclunkey versions of Return Of The Jedi in cinemas and advertising it as somehow part of the “40th anniversary” for the film.

The thing that comes to mind in recent times for me is when Lucasfilm themselves expunged Jason Wingreen as being the original iconic voice of Boba Fett for their official documentary on the history of Boba Fett. From a couple of years back? Not a single mention, reference or clip of Jason Wingreen or that awesome vocal wrasp of his at all. It was as if it never happened:

Jason Wingreen, disintegrated from history by Lucasfilm, for their new doc on Boba Fett
 

But there is probably more of this type of revisionism in past few years too?

Send the Wookiee with him as the muscle.
 

Like erichf69 says, a deal with Criterion is a win all around. Even for anyone who actually believes Favreau’s disappointing and narrow minded comments.

Has anyone asked Criterion if they have tried for a deal to release the unaltered cuts? Or how far they got in talks for any such deal?
 

Like anyone else here, I hope it happens! Especially if people at Lucasfilm mistakenly think there is little demand for the unaltered cuts: let a company like Criterion, the experts in their field, actually do the work for them.

That is a cracking OP on on much overlooked aspect of the OT films.

I remember being taken out of TLJ, where the escape pods are slowly being obliterated one by on by the First Order. People on these escape pods are looking out of the windows and seeing other escape pods with their friends, family, fellow Rebels on board being slaughtered. And there is nothing from the people on board. No reaction or emotion on their faces at all or from their bodies at all. There was no direction, or this was a shot used fro another scene, but for such an emotional moment, the Rebels being wiped out, you’d like to think they would at least try and get the little details right. But no.

The Prequels: I can’t remember any scenes either like those from the OT. Likely due to the green screen or blue screen CGI backgrounds, and the focus of direction. Unless it had a thousand ships or vehicles whizzing around in the background (“so dense, so very dense”), there wasn’t much going on like in the OT.

5-25-77 - Official Trailer (2022)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZb00Z0Flik - a 3 minute video at the IGN Movie Trailers YouTube channel.
 

5-25-77 Wikipedia page & 5-25-77 IMDB page - it was released worldwide in November 2022.
 

 
After hearing about it for so many years, and now finding out this finally got a release, and watching the above trailer, I am so looking forward to watching this!

I hadn’t realized that Jude Law was playing a Jedi in this. I wonder if we’ll see his backstory early on in the series?

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a43541742/star-wars-skeleton-crew-trailer-mandalorian-crossover

https://thedirect.com/article/star-wars-skeleton-crew-jude-law-trailer
 

The v2 release of 4K83 was released earlier this month.
 

From the “Release Notes” on Myspleen:

'v2.0 - A complete redo.

This version is a complete redo of the project. Nothing is reused from v1.x except the
audio. This version is one colour correction across all seven reels with one small
deviation during the Sarlacc scene. This preserves the film as a whole. Read below.

The reason to redo it is because the previous versions have issues that can’t be fixed.
The main problem goes back to how v1.0 was created. The raw capture was in cinemaDNG
format. What I didn’t know at the time was it’s in a different colour space than what I
was working in. I manually changed colour space to RGB instead of doing a proper colour
space conversion. This caused issues. Also at the time, becasue of the colour space issue
and my limited experience, I couldn’t figure out one red fade correction that worked
across all seven reels so each reel was corrected individually.

In v2.0 I do a proper colour space conversion first. I then did a single colour correction
across all seven reels. The Sarlacc scene lacked contrast and saturation so I altered the
saturation in the highlights giving the sky more blue which improved the image greatly.
Only the highlights of the scene were altered from that single film grade. By using a
single colour correction I am preserving the film as a whole. This limits my “creative
license” and restricts the grade to keep it more inline with how it would have been in
1983. There is no definitive grade to use as a reference as every official version is
different so I tried to find the best balance I could.

The cleanup is less refined than the previous versions. In v1.x I cleaned all dirt I saw.
In v2.0 I am preserving the dirt that is in the original negative. This dirt you would
have seen in the theatre in 1983. It’s a more authentic experience this way. The dirt is
only really present in the optical FX shots. Non FX shots are about as clean as the
previous versions. This version preserves the ugly glue stains that are in the print and
would have been seen in the theatres in 1983. Glue stains are at some edit points.

In regards to stabilization, I have not used warp stabilizer in any shots and nothing is
“locked” so there should be some amount of gate weave in every shot. In most shots
it’s minimal and wont distract from the viewing experience.

The first audio track is the RAW audio captured from this 35mm print without any post
processing. This preserves the audio as it would have been heard in the theatre compete
with audio dropouts as they would have been heard then. It’s a more authentic experience.

No DNR or sharpening has been applied. The RAW capture has some chroma noise from the
camera used. It has not been removed. The chroma noise is only noticeable if you zoom into
the image anyway so it should not be seen during normal viewing.

All this should provide a more authentic 1983 viewing and listening experience which was
the intention of the original project.

The main project is being rendered at 1080p and 2160p (SDR). This version is cropped as
it would have been seen in the theatre. The SMPTE crop is the official crop and at 2.39:1.

I am also rendering a Full Frame version as I did for v1.1. This shows the entire 35mm
film frame. This shows the parts of the frame you were never ment to see. This version is
a bit distracting to watch and only recommended for “film nerds”. You will see more of the
glue stains and other issues around the frame that are always cropped off. Full Frame
version is 2K (2048x1080). This would allow someone to crop the image
and still have approximately 1080p resolution left over.

These are the final media files as follows:

Return.of.the.Jedi.4K83.2160p.35mm.x265.10bit.SDR.v2.0-SMPTE.mkv
Return.of.the.Jedi.4K83.1080p.35mm.x264.v2.0-SMPTE.mkv

Return.of.the.Jedi.4K83.2K.35mm.x264.v2.0.Full.Frame.mkv

Info from previous versions that still applies.

99.9% of all frames used in this project are sourced from one original 1983 35mm
Eastman print. The remaining 175 frames were sourced from an alternate 35mm print.
All frames were scanned, cleaned, stabilized, and color corrected in 4k (anamorphic)
from 35mm prints. The primary print used is NOT a release print but a special screening
print struck directly from the original film negative in 1983. It is presented with
it’s original film grain intact which is two generations less than what a theatrical
release print would have and only one generation from the original negative.

This project is not GOUT-synced. The GOUT version of this film is missing two
frames that were seen in theatres. This project presents those two original theatrical
frames for film and historical accuracy. Muxing in alternate GOUT synced audio to
this project will slightly alter the audio sync by two frames. Most people won’t notice
a two frame shift in audio sync. The two extra frames are located at time 00:47:41.
 

Additional information about the project can be found here:
https://forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com/threads/project-4k83-v2.4184/ ’

There is a 1080p HD option, and a 2160p UHD option for this v2 release.

Juno Eclipse said:

The Original Trilogy will soon be 50 years old, or at least part of it will be in 2027, and they really have stood the test of time.
It makes me wonder if the Prequels and the Sequels will have a similar affection, when they approach their 50th anniversaries?

I doubt whether the Prequels or Sequels will on their 50th anniversary. It seems both those trilogies require much ancillary material in a bid to to fix and address their glaring issues.

For the Prequels there is Clone Wars, The Clone Wars, Rebels and the Obi-Wan series in an attempt to somehow remedy those issues. For the Prequel era, or how the Prequels are thought of in general, those series have helped improve the perception of the PT over time. But the PT films on their own? I really doubt it.

In the Sequels it appears The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka (and maybe outlines from Rangers Of The Republic and possibly the new Skeleton Crew series and the coming New Republic theatrical film) is now an attempt to somehow try and remedy the issues of the Sequels. For these all this additional content to now help the Sequel era and the perception of it. But the ST films on their own? As above with the PT films, I really doubt it.
 

The Original Trilogy stands on its own two feet. It is the main draw nearly 50 years on, and is still what most of the merchandise and iconic images used to promote and sell Star Wars.

But that is just my take on it. Maybe one day they’ll actually do a new Star Wars trilogy that can stand on it its two feet too, and not need all this ancillary material to set the layout of the galaxy, or try to explain or remedy the needless issues within the films. And we’ll then get a whole host of new Star Wars series with new stories, in new settings, new eras, and new characters, in the galaxy far far away.

Plus, fans still want to watch the versions of the Original Trilogy they grew up with. Or have the option to watch them all. I still get a kick out of these:
 

ORIGINAL Luke vs Darth Vader & The Emperor | Return of the Jedi (1983) [DeEd, Blu-ray, GOUT, LPP] (unbutchered version)

https://youtu.be/Ouv-JDzgQOA?t=338 - at the Star Wars Comparison YouTube channel

ORIGINAL Funeral Pyre/Celebration | Return of the Jedi (1983) [DeEd, Blu-ray, GOUT, LPP] (unbutchered version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88Z6G9LewT8&t=165s - at the Star Wars Comparison YouTube channel

That video does make it sound like it could very much happen, but I just refuse to get my hopes up for this. I’d love them to take their time and get this right, but I just don’t see it happening as a film or even as a series anymore. And I want to be so very wrong about that. Dammit Star Wars!

I find it a little disappointing how the 3 main series in the Mandoverse: The Mandalorian, Book Of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka (as well as any ideas and outlines from cancelled ‘Rangers Of The Republic’ series, and maybe even the new ‘Skeleton Crew’ series), are going to essentially be a rehabilitation project for the Sequel Trilogy?

Maybe even The Bad Batch too with the cloning stories there, and also possible nods and references to events and characters from The Clone Wars, Rebels, and even Resistance too.

Or taking story aspects, events, and characters from the EU and making them canon once again (often without mentioning or crediting the original EU author or source).

That the setting of the galaxy for the Sequel Trilogy was so poorly explained, and the underwhelming finale of it, including the last minute introduction of “the big bad” in TROS, now requires some kind of fixing or addressing by these Disney+ era shows? Similar to how to Clone Wars, The Clone Wars and Rebels sought to fix, or at least try to, lessen the damage of the poorly executed and jarring Prequel Trilogy films.

I think Dave Filoni has a lot on his hands to make this succeed. It will take something special for both the average movie-goer to understand, follow and enjoy: as well as satisfying everyone who has watched some of the various series in this Mandoverse so far. It should also be interesting to see if the once-planned “climactic story event” is part of this film, or will be in the one or more of the Disney+ series, as a way to introduce this “New Republic” film?

Good luck to him.
 

^ the very idea of this has a lot to answer for. In more ways than we could have possibly imagined!

Three New Star Wars Movies Announced at the official Star Wars website on April 7: “Dave Filoni’s [film] will focus on the New Republic, and close out the interconnected stories told in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and other Disney+ series.”
 

'Filoni confirmed he would be involved in the writing process, although couldn’t say when filming would begin - but when asked what he could say about the story, did proffer the following information:

"Very little, very little. The way I’ve been describing it is, if you grew up when I did you’re aware of the post-Return of the Jedi era that was presented to me. The New Republic is not a new idea. That is not something The Mandalorian created. That’s an old idea, it’s been around a long time. There are just things in Star Wars that we all seem to know if we’ve been around it a long time. There have been a lot of tremendous creatives over the years that have been telling stories in the era that spans the 30 years that now ends with The Force Awakens. But there’s a large gap of time there.

Things aren’t that great when we begin The Force Awakens. So Jon and I looked at that time period, and when he knew he wanted The Mandalorian in it, one of the things I told him early on was, “Well, I have this epilogue in Star Wars: Rebels that’s kind of dealing with that time period,” which you’ve seen at the end with Sabina and Ahsoka going off. So, a lot of those threads start to come together, and then I looked at the bigger body of work that’s been done and what’s relevant, and a story will emerge out of that."’

^ from https://collider.com/dave-filoni-new-star-wars-movie-comments
 

Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni On What’s Next for Star Wars - an 18 minute video at the IGN YouTube channel.

Kathleen Kennedy on the Future of Star Wars | Star Wars Celebration 2023 - an 11 minute video at the IGN YouTube channel.

Roobyoo said:

I made a quick YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAVyXMNrdC0

Top video, and well presented. I think you may be right!

I think you and EC Henry could both be correct if there were two tennis shoes used, as from Ken Ralton’s quote by Juno.

benduwan said:

there is no new behind the scenes or deletet scenes release from jedi?

Sadly not. Nothing like that 😦
 

The only Return Of The Jedi panel shown live was:

40 Years of Return of the Jedi panel: can be watched at 1:55:45 here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi-b2c0RY7I

I thought the above panel was disappointing. Ming-Na Wen was good as the host, but they had 3 people from Lucasfilm who hadn’t even worked on ROTJ talking about it, and I don’t understand why they didn’t have any of the talented film crew or ILM people from ROTJ on the panel.

Then Anthony Daniels, Warwick Davis, Ian McDiarmid and a tired, quiet or ill Billy Dee Williams came on stage for a bit too. Billy Dee just plugged his new book. Anthony Daniels and Warwick Davis tried to be funny and were not. Only Ian McDiarmid was interesting. I do hope you and others enjoy the panel far more than I did.

Unfortunately the 4 other Return Of The Jedi panels at Celebration 2023 were not shown live:

The Science of Return of the Jedi (they put this on the same day & time as the “40 Years of Return of the Jedi” panel!)
40 Years Later: Exploring the History Behind “Blue Harvest"
Start Your Engines: Lambda Shuttle
Planet Leia

The season 2 trailer for Visions:

Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 | Official Trailer | Disney+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSXqU92cymY - a 2 minute video at the official Star Wars YouTube channel.
 

Streaming May 4 on Disney+. www.starwars.com/series/star-wars-visions
 

“Star Wars: Visions Volume 2” panel at Celebration 2023: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf7D4MWJofM (at 2 hours into the video)
 
 

The 9 Episodes:
 

1. “Sith”
   from El Guiri. (14 minutes)
   A former Sith apprentice, leading a peaceful, but isolated life, is confronted by the past when her old master tracks her down.

2. “Screecher’s Reach”
   from Cartoon Saloon. (13 minutes)
   A young girl, seeking reprieve from her days in a rural workhouse, discovers a legendary haunted cave with her friends. The cave’s dark pull will change the trajectory of her life forever.

3. “In the Stars”
   from Punkrobot. (15 minutes)
   Two sisters, the last of their kind who live in hiding on their ravaged land, squabble about how to survive with the Empire encroaching. On a water run, the sisters must fight back when they are discovered.

4. “I Am Your Mother”
   from Aardman. (11 minutes)
   Young pilot Anni, who is embarrassed by her sweet, but clingy mum, must team with her for a madcap family race at the academy. Along the way, their relationship is tested by the elements, their old ship, other racers…and each other!

5. “Journey to the Dark Head”
   from Studio Mir. (18 minutes)
   A hopeful mechanic and disillusioned young Jedi team up for a risky and unlikely quest to turn the tide of the galactic war, but dark forces tail them.

6. “The Spy Dancer”
   from Studio La Cachette. (16 minutes)
   The premier dancer at a famous, Imperial-frequented cabaret uses her unique skill-set to spy for the Rebellion, but the presence of a mysterious officer threatens to derail her mission.

7. “The Bandits of Golak”
   from 88 Pictures. (16 minutes)
   Fleeing from their village by train and pursued by ferocious Imperial forces, a boy and his force-sensitive younger sister seek refuge in a vibrant and dangerous dhaba.

8. “The Pit”
   from D’Art Shtajio and Lucasfilm Ltd. (16 minutes)
   A fearless young prisoner, forced to dig for kyber by the Empire, plans a risky escape for he and his people.

9. “Aau’s Song”
   from Trigger Fish. (15 minutes)
   An alien child who longs to sing is raised by her loving, but stern father to stay quiet because of the calamitous effect her voice has on the crystals in the nearby mines.

“Just announced at #StarWarsCelebration: @StarWars: #TheBadBatch will return for a third and final season on @DisneyPlus
in 2024.” - https://twitter.com/starwars/status/1645380428658819073
 

Day 4 - Monday

Star Wars Celebration LIVE! 2023 - DAY 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf7D4MWJofM - at the official Star Wars YouTube channel.

Some bits of news announced on Day 4:

The Bad Batch will return for a third and final season: https://www.starwars.com/news/swce-2023-the-bad-batch-season-3
Star Wars: Visions season 2 - trailer and information: https://www.starwars.com/news/swce-2023-star-wars-visions

Star Wars Celebration Heads to Japan in 2025: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-celebration-japan-2025

Oh, that is bit disappointing. Maybe something will happen in the future, but I will not hold my breath on that.

Day 3 - Sunday

Star Wars Celebration LIVE! 2023 - DAY 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hil5cr-tLxY - at the official Star Wars YouTube channel.

Some bits of news announced so far on Day 3:

Nothing much, really.

“Star Wars Celebration 2023: All the Big News” article - https://www.starwars.com/news/swce-2023-all-the-big-news

Juno Eclipse said:

It’d be cool if the “Andor, the Empire and a History of Resistance” panel is on the official YouTube live stream tomorrow.

They didn’t show that Andor panel. Instead they showed Anthony Daniels go through some painful banter and “funny” interview with someone from The Star Wars Show.

There was a 15 minute interview with Andy Serkis, but that was all of the Andor content shown live today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi-b2c0RY7I - from the official Star Wars YouTube channel; at 3:45:02 into the video

The “40 Years of Return of the Jedi” panel at Celebration 2023 can be watched at 1:55:45 into this video below:
 

Star Wars Celebration LIVE! 2023 - DAY 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi-b2c0RY7I - at the official Star Wars YouTube channel.

 
Unfortunately, “The Science of Return of the Jedi” panel was not broadcast or streamed live; because for some reason it was on at the exact same day and time as the “40 Years of Return of the Jedi” panel.

The 40 Years Later: Exploring the History Behind “Blue Harvest", Start Your Engines: Lambda Shuttle, and the Planet Leia panels are also not going to be shown live on the Star Wars YouTube channel.

So the 40 Years of Return of the Jedi panel was the only “ROTJ at 40” panel at Celebration 2023 that was shown live.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Will Be Back in Theaters for 40th Anniversary Celebration at StarWars.com

 
'Jabba the Hutt. Speeder bikes. The Emperor and Ewoks. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is turning 40, and will make its own triumphant return this month.

Today, fans attending Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 were the first to learn that the beloved sixth chapter in the Skywalker saga, Return of the Jedi, is heading back to theaters — its first official release in 26 years. Starting April 28, Return of the Jedi will return to select theaters in the US, UK, and other regions for a limited time, welcoming a whole new generation of fans to enjoy a full theatrical presentation of the iconic film for the very first time.

As with the 40th anniversary screenings of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in 2020, a striking new poster commemorating Return of the Jedi’s theatrical return has been created, again by artist Matt Ferguson.
 

 
“I’m so happy and grateful to get to work on these movies again, even more so to be given the freedom to continue what I started with Empire,” says Ferguson. “For that poster, a cold mechanical vibe completely takes over the whole composition. But Return of the Jedi is very much the triumph of Luke and the Rebels, so I wanted to have more of the warmer colors coming back into the art, hence pivoting to green with red accents.”

With 40 years having passed since the original theatrical run of Return of the Jedi, and with the full Skywalker saga now in view, Ferguson decided to focus his composition on two of the saga’s most resonant and consequential figures – Luke and Vader.

“The artwork should tell a story, so for me it only made sense to give over the composition to those two characters,” he continues. “Will Luke be turned? Is Vader going to overcome the darkness? It’s all about the pull between good and evil.”

Screenings for Return of the Jedi in the US will take place April 28 – May 4, and April 28 – May 1 in the UK. Stay tuned to StarWars.com for updates on other regions and dates.’

It doesn’t say which version will be shown. But as others have said on here, it will probably be the 2019 Maclunkey version, so it will really be the 4th anniversary of Return Of The Jedi.